Recently, a nine-year-old girl at her lemonade stand received a surprise she never could have expected.

Sheriff’s Deputy Zack Ropos was on patrol in Painesville, a city 30 miles northeast of Cleveland, Ohio, when he decided to stop and buy some lemonade from the little girl, Gabrielle.

During an interview with ABC News, the twenty-two-year-old Deputy said, “I see a little girl come running up to my police car. She hands me a glass, I hand her a few bucks. I asked her what she wanted to do with the money . . . she said she’d get an iPad, to help with school and play games.”

Ropos remembered that he had an old, unused iPad at home and, told Gabrielle’s mother that he would bring it to them the next day.

“I went home that night, fired up the iPad, but it just wasn’t updated anymore . . . nothing really worked on it.”

After finding out that the iPad was no longer working, Ropos found a store that agreed to help pay for a new tablet. Later that day, Ropos dropped off the tablet with Gabrielle and her mother.

“I talked to the little girl, gave her a speech about how courageous and admirable I think her efforts were to save up her money. I asked her how much she saved up, and she said she only had a few dollars.”

Gabrielle then explained that she had given what little money she had earned to her mother since their car had run out of gas.

“When she told me she gave the money to her mom . . . that’s when I almost started crying because of how great of a kid she really was,” said Ropos. “Seeing her face is how I remember Christmas when I was 5 years old. She couldn’t stop smiling. Her smile was worth a million dollars.”

A Beaverton resident, Madeleine Cook enjoys a passion for reading, running, and the arts. She is currently studying the Great Books at the University of Notre Dame and is interested in eventually teaching.